


Aquafilia

by Yoyi



Category: Stargate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5726536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoyi/pseuds/Yoyi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Artic adapts to <em>Destiny</em>. Rush adapts to Artic. The rest of the crew adapt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aquafilia

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Further Divided](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3899497) by [Potboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potboy/pseuds/Potboy). 



> Hello. :D  
> I will recoment, or more like request, that before reading this one, you go read Potboy's fic first. If not, this fic will NOT make any sense.
> 
>  **Warnings** : Without beta. May contain swearing words.  
>  **Another note** : Potboy wrote a sequel herself to _Further Divided_ called _Fish out of water_ that also helped me finishing this one fic.  
>  Well, nothing else, enjoy the reading.
> 
> Yoyi.

**Aquafilia**

 

In Rush mind it was still inadequate to keep that thing—zir or ze or whatever, he wasn't familiar with that way of calling it yet—as it posed a constant threat to the ship and its inhabitants. They couldn't be completely sure that thing wouldn't have a change of heart and suddenly sending their position and whereabouts to the other aliens. And it wasn't right to let it roam around the ship, even guarded and followed by armed soldiers, and much less let it touch any of the computers in the Control Interface Room. How ridiculous!

 

And no, it wasn't because Rush was afraid of the Nakai—he would accept deep down that he, within reason, was kind of scared of the thing but would never say that out loud—, it was simply that they had tortured him and kept him as a guinea pig. It was perfectly reasonable that Rush was wary of it, even if the rest of the crew kept telling him that 'Artic' wasn't dangerous. Of course, they weren't pushing Miss Armstrong to meet with it, no, but they had to ask him continuously to try and have a 'chat'. Yes, of course, as if he would let his mind open _yet again_ for another of those aliens. Ridiculous!

 

The scientist was busy feeling aggravated by this situation and what happened next was so unexpected that he froze at first. He collided with the Nakai and fell down, entangled with the creature. The shock didn't last long, and he started to panic, because what he was seeing was a Nakai attacking him, not 'Artic' trying to get away from him. Both of them fought to disentangle from the other, making it even more messy and difficult. Rush had the presence of mind to not scream or yell or punch it. Something in the watery eyes that were looking at his told him that this creature was not a threat, that it was scared too. Something from the back of his mind told him, pleaded him, to let go, to stop fighting and let go, to not hurt or harm. Rush inhaled, trying to control his very agitated breathing, and then exhaled slowly before finally managing to get away from the Nakai and crawl backwards until his back reached the wall.

 

Then, he focused his eyes on the creature in front of him looked distressed. How he knew that was a total mystery, for now. The creature, leaning on the wall opposite his rose its claws in a grotesque imitation of a non-threatening gesture. If only the claws didn't look so long or sharp, Rush could have felt a little bit more at ease. But that was not the case, so his heart spiked, speeding inside his chest and the thought of jumping up and running away settled on his mind. That, until he saw what the Nakai was holding in one of the paws. Rush frowned. That seemed like the idea of someone else from the crew. The Nakai had never tried to engage a 'conversation' with him until now of its own volition—damn, he really needed to learn the zir stuff, he was starting to feel guilty from thinking of the Nakai as an 'it' and that distracted him—, so he frowned, and then barked a dry laugh. Then, reached for the device and attached it to his head. He was done with this, if this Nakai was really a mole, and the whole crew wanted it—zir? Ze? Hir?—to have access to all the knowledge he could manage to hide from hir peers, then so be it. If after this they were boarded by a herd of blue aliens he was not going to feel responsible at all.

 

The first thing he felt was an apologetic touch to his mind, and that startled him enough as to jump to his feet and plaster to the wall, looking at Artic with big eyes full of suspicion and surprise.

 

“What?”

 

Now, the Nakai seemed to curl up a little and looked down. Something akin to 'sorry' flooded his mind then. It was followed by a dim plea of not telling anyone, of not punishing, and then Rush started to understand why this Nakai didn't seem as threatening and haunting as the others. Artic was ill, or more like, not complete. Artic was a failure and because so ze had to be punished and cast aside, ze was not worth this, but the human had taken ze there and boldly told him to stay.

 

“I see...” Rush was not really conscious of speaking out loud, but the Nakai did, so ze looked at him, wondering. “It's not as if I can't understand it. But that has nothing to do with me. And don't worry, I won't punish you for startling me,” he said, adding a little laugh at the end. Why would Artic think that he... Oh! Ze was afraid of Rush, because he had managed to make a bit of a wreck of one of the mind readers without even trying. That was a surprise.

 

“I couldn't let them have this all, you know?” Rush said, pointing at his head. “Not that I know that much about _Destiny_ , but I wasn't about to let them take away everything.”

 

Artic nodded. The bastard was catching pretty fast on the human small gestures. Well, that was good anyway.

 

“Rrt!k,” ze said. Rush looked at hir, caught off ward.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Rrt!k.”

 

Oh! Ze was correcting Rush's way of spelling hir name. At least, in his mind, Rush should be able to think of the name's correct way of spelling. That was the general idea. Since the human vocal cords couldn't fully pronunciate it. So, Artic had a bit of pride left. Rush couldn't help but smile sidelong.

 

“I get it. So, why were you waiting for me?”

 

A flood of numbers invaded his head. The best part was that he understood all of it. The worst..., well, that Eli had to send Artic to him. The boy could have managed perfectly fine with it, but it seemed he preferred Rush to take care of it. First, he shook his head, thinking about Eli. Then, he looked at Artic and nodded.

 

***

 

Suspicion arose in the crew when they started to see Rush and Artic working side by side all day long. The first time, Eli had found them in the Control Interface Room, heads almost touching, bending over a single console, Rush mumbling something while Artic was nodding. Eli only smiled at it, because it seemed like a huge improvement but when he told Colonel Young about it, his smile disappeared as the frown appeared on Young's face.

 

“Keep me posted. Don't miss a thing if you can.”

 

Eli sighed internally, he was tired of being a spy, but he couldn't understand Young's wariness, so he just acceded.

 

After two days of kino recording, Eli began to feel bored and was about to toss aside his spying material when he caught on something peculiar. Rush was talking to Artic, and Artic answered in Nakai.

 

“Oh... Oh!”

 

He took his laptop and ran to the Colonel's quarters and entered without knocking. He found the man sitting on his desk, working on his laptop.

 

“Colonel, um... You... You have to see this,” he said apologetic. It was clear that he had interrupted Young. “It's kinda important stuff... Related to you know what?”

 

Young sighed, then nodded. “Let me see what you have got there.”

 

“Okay, okay. I'm going to show you a little bit of footage and maybe you won't see anything at first but if you pay attention you...”

 

“Eli,” Young cut.

 

“Oh. Yeah, sorry. Here we go.” Eli placed his own laptop on top of Young's desk, opened it and then pressed play. Young looked at it unimpressed.

 

“Is that all? Artic and Rush working together?”

 

“What? No! That's not it. I mean. Look at them!”

 

“I am... What am I supposed to see?” Young asked. He wasn't in the mood for riddles.

 

“They are talking.”

 

Young still seemed unimpressed. “So?”

 

“No, no, no. They are _talking_. Rush says something in English, and Artic answers in Nakai. And they both _understand_. They. Understand.”

 

This caught Young's attention. “Continue.”

 

“That's it... Well, no. They are doing that without the head device, you know?”

 

That... Was alarming.

 

“They can communicate without the device?”

 

“Yes! That's weird. Totally weird.”

 

Young reclined in his chair, thinking about it. “Call Chloe here. I have to talk with her.”

 

“Uh? Um, yeah, sure... But... Err... What about...?”

 

“Leave it for now. No one knows about this, understood?”

 

“Yeah, yes.”

 

When Eli closed the door, he felt something weird in his stomach. He would have understood if Young wanted to talk with Rush, but why involve Chloe? “Anyway, I have heaps of work to do,” he said out loud before going to find Chloe.

 

***

 

It's not practical, having to use that device all the time to communicate with Artic, that's how he realized that he didn't need it. They had changed him, changed something within him and now he could communicate with Artic through thoughts. Ze had also realized it and, at first, ze didn't understand why would Rush panic. It was an improvement. They didn't do much anyway. The way Artic said that— _thought_ about that—was maddening enough to make Rush want to punch hir. But he didn't. He just strode away.

 

“...to ask something, so I don't know if I'll be late for my next shift in the infirmary,” Rush heard Chloe talking when he was near a corner on the corridor.

 

“Oh! Don't worry then, you can skip Hydroponics today if you must.”

  
“Thanks a lot, Lisa.”

 

Rush waited until Park went away and tailed Chloe. When he was sure there were no-one near them, he speeded up to catch up to her.

 

“Chloe!”

 

“Dr. Rush.”

 

They stood there for a brief moment. A moment held with tension and maybe a bit of animosity. Since the 'incident' Chloe had become somewhat cold towards Rush and the man felt it in her gaze. She was hurt because he risked the life of Lieutenant Scott and still hadn't forgiven Rush, though it was clear for him that she was trying, at least.

 

“What do you want?” she asked after Rush didn't say anything else.

 

“Where are you going right no?”

 

Chloe seemed puzzled. “To talk with the Colonel. He has something to ask me.”

 

 _He knows_ , Rush thought. _He knows and wants to know if Chloe is like me_. Though that wasn't impossible, when he had asked Artic about that in particular, ze had said that they didn't need to change Chloe in that way. Ze explained that they had needed to change Rush in order to 'lower' his mental defences.

 

Chloe was still looking at him, so Rush nodded. “Tell him that I told you, before he asks anything, that you are not in the same position. It's not the same for you.”

 

Then, he turned around and left. He knew Chloe would be wondering what that meant until she met with Colonel Young and, in case the man wanted to share it with her, he told her what was happening between Rush and Artic, so she would know. Rush didn't need to clarify it yet. Young might be the one telling and he needed to go back to work. He knew that Young would use that to put Rush on hold, maybe in a cell. Because he could become a threat.

 

But there was a wrong assumption on his part. Young didn't want to know because he wanted to restrain Rush, but to use this new 'ability' to make sure that what he was saying was the truth. Young had made a plan the moment Eli told him about his discovery, to use this opportunity to make Artic interrogate Rush, without the man noticing. If they really had mental conversations, then there was a possibility that Rush wouldn't be able to lie or hide the truth. And there were a number of things Young wanted to know for sure.

 

That, of course, Rush didn't suspect, so instead, he worried himself with work.

 

***

 

The talk with Chloe was fast. She was walking out his quarters within minutes of having entered. She had forwarded Rush's message as soon as she sat on the chair in front of his desk and that gave Young some important information: Rush knew that he knew. Regardless of Rush's words, he asked her if she had talked with Artic not wearing the _com-dev_ —as Eli called them, rushing to explain that it was from 'communication device'—and she had looked at him in confusion. No she hadn't, but she would try it just in case. She looked worried.

 

As she walked out, Young could hear her mumble “That's what Rush meant, not changed...” before the door swung closed. Young waited a bit more before rising from the chair and walking to the door. He was going to look for Rush, now. If Rush knew, this moment was as good as any other to confront the man. Before he stepped out, he took a deep breath to calm himself. Yet another secret that man was keeping from them, maybe even endangering. Yet again. Was there no end to that?

 

After a quick check on the mess and few questions he located Rush. He was working, bent over a computer, Artic at his side hissing and signalling at the screen, which made the scientist to frown and mumble something inaudible for Young. The Colonel narrowed his eyes. From his side, this all looked suspicious, and dangerous. They both seemed to be too focused on what they were working so Young stood quietly, observing.

 

“I told you that's not how this works! Stupid fish! Can't you understand!? This is not your tank fish, this is a technology made by a race far superior to both of ours, and it's not similar to your-” Rush exploded suddenly. Young tensed as he saw Artic recoil while screeching something.

 

“That's not what I mean.”

 

Artic answered him again and Rush looked at the screen. Young could picture Rush's eyes moving one side to the other while reading whatever was written in there.

 

“I see...” Rush mumbled and then, to Young's surprise, stepped aside, letting the Nakai on the computer, but staying close enough to see what ze was doing. They went silent once again.

 

This was when Young decided to make himself noticeable. He cleared his throat before saying, “Rush, I need to talk with you. Do you have a second?”

 

Rush didn't hesitate on following him, but he looked warded and his face, that usually was very expressive, was almost like a blank mask.

 

***

 

When ze saw vR*t Young taking Rush from hir side Artic knew it had to do with ze and hir work. They were going to leave him behind on the next planet they found. Ze felt something that the humans called betrayal, but it didn't come as a surprise, ze had known long enough that once one become useless there's nothing else but to be abandoned.

 

Artic found hirself alone. That wasn't good. Was it hir last opportunity? Was that why ze was left alone? A test to see if ze could operate on hir own, if ze would mess up with the calculations. Artic, even when ze knew hirself worthless, prided on hir mathematics capacities, and if this was hir last chance to prove to the humans that ze could be trusted then ze would take it and don't waste it. Ze went back to work.

 

***

 

Only thinking about what was the conversation about a head ache started to rose inside Rush's head. He could already predict what Young would do. First, he would reproach to Rush that he didn't tell about his new 'ability'. Even if Rush defended himself saying that it was private or that it didn't suppose any kind of danger to the rest of the crew, Young would counter attack saying that he should have told them anyway. So, what was the purpose of talking, anyway, if Young had already decided that Rush was guilty of whatever crime was being able to communicate with the damned Nakai without the damned device? It was only a waste of his time.

 

“So...” Young started.

 

“Colonel, save it. What do you want me to do? I can't stop it. I don't even know if I can go back. I ignore which part of my body was changer. I'm sure it was the brain, but it's useless. Nowadays what we know about the function of the human brain is not nearly enough less if we-”

 

“Rush. Shut up.”

 

And Rush did. Young looked tired. As tired as Rush felt himself. What was this charade about?

 

“I have work to do, Colonel.”

 

“Yes, I know that. But what I want to ask is if you are sure this will interfere. I want to know that whatever is inside your head is safe for the rest of us. I don't want to be left hanging with 'what ifs', I want to know for sure that other Nakai can't locate us or even control you.”

 

Rush fell silent, not knowing what to say. He was really at a loss of words. He had asked those questions countless times from the moment he knew about his newest condition to himself. What if he was a real threat to the crew, to the ship? He couldn't live with that.

 

“I can't know that. Go ask another.” Of course, Rush refused to be held responsible of this, he didn't do anything wrong this time. He was the victim here.

 

“Ask who?”

 

God, but Young was slow. “The only source of Nakai information that we have on board, for example,” he answered, slightly angered.

 

“I was planning on it, anyway.” Young stood there, regarding Rush with his eyes, as if measuring the next words he was going to use. “Why didn't you tell-?”

 

“Oh, for fuck's sake, Colonel! Both of us know that if I had done that you would had me locked up in a heart beat. And, as you can see, nothing had happened...”

 

“...yet...”

 

“...and if I saw it as a real danger I would be asking myself to be monitored. I know the limits...”

 

“...Oh, do you now?...”

 

“Stop interrupting me! What do you want from me?”

 

Young looked at Rush, frowning. “Go back to work, Rush. But have this clear, if something, anything, for small that it might be, seems off, I'll have you in a detention cell.”

 

Rush waited until Young had left to say, “Well, that was useful,” with his most sarcastic tone.

 

***

 

The ship dropped out of FTL. They had three planets at range, so they would be dividing into three foraging teams. Civilians and military were gathering in the _Startgate_ room, excited to be able to go out of that ship for a few hours. One of the people there was Artic, who just stood as far as ze could, back almost plastered to the wall, looking at the puddle with rapt admiration.

 

“Hey, Fish!”

 

Artic looked away from the Stargate to Rush. Rush was the only human to call hir 'Fish'.

 

“You are coming too. Get ready.”

 

Surprised, Artic let a screeching sound out, startling a small number of people near Rush and hir, and then, after ze was with a guard, ze went to receive off world equipment.

 

Then planet ze was destined looked like a blessing. It had water everywhere, tall trees and moist atmosphere. Humans seemed to be uncomfortable in there but Artic couldn't wait until ze was given permission to swim. It had been so long since the last time ze was granted a tank for hirself that ze had even dreamt about it. If ze was not mistaken, those dreams were what human Eli would call wet dreams, since water was everywhere in them.

 

There were some kind of ruins that were discovered by the Kinos. The buildings looked close to Nakai ones, so ze was destined there with Rush and a heavy amount of armed humans. Ze was feeling what the humans called excitation. Ze wanted to be there already and study the structures. If it was really a Nakai ruin then it would be of high interest not only for ze hirself but for hir raze as well. Ze was planning already on how to program a signal to call for nearby Nakai. It could even be the lost homeland! There could be important archives and information on the Nakai history.

 

***

 

Young didn't trust Rush on this mission, or more like part of himself didn't trust the man. Other part of him knew the man was his better asset. And Artic. Truth be told, Young thought only Artic was useful, since he thought that Rush was a danger. Who knew? What if his mental contact with Artic made it possible for other Nakai to locate him? That could lead to another attack, more lives in danger. But they had to risk it. There could be something useful for them in those ruins, in these planets. They needed food and water, and if there was any possibility of there being some kind of technology they could use for their advantage...

 

Anyway, he couldn't completely trust Rush. That was why there were so many soldiers in his group. They had orders. Not to kill the man, not to abandon him, but to stop him, by force if necessary. He hoped the situation wouldn't call for it.

 

Young looked over at Scott and when the young man looked back he nodded. Scott was in Rush's team, he couldn't risk Greer going berserk with the man if the situation got complicated.

 

Looking around him, he could see that the tension that arose after the mutiny was loosening. It wasn't gone, but that was ok. It would take time, anyway.

 

“Good luck,” he said at the foraging teams, standing at Brody's side while the man opened and closed the 'Gate to let them go to the planets.

 

***

 

Rush was covered in dirt and his boots weighed double. After walking through the wetland that was beyond the Stargate for nearly two hours, they started to see the ruins. It didn't look like a ruin at all, the buildings were still in place, though it looked like a rain of asteroids fell over it—there were too many holes on the ground and structures to not think that was the reason. Lieutenant Scott, who was at the vanguard, signalled stop and he did, letting himself fall onto the soft ground.

 

He put aside the backpack and took out the canteen to take a sip. For the umpteenth time he wondered why had he agreed to come down here. He could remember clearly that he had swore not to go down on planets after being abandoned by Young in the desert planet—not that that had stopped him from following Simeon to that other desert planet to kill him—, and here was he again, dragged along. Though he had to admit that exploring other civilizations' remains was interesting, he was also slightly paranoid with this particular place. He could feel the Nakai everywhere, or maybe was just the moist in the ambient and the huge amount of water, muddy puddles everywhere.

 

Taking another sip, he glanced towards Artic. The poor thing had been showing hir emotions too clearly as soon as ze was told what they had found on the planet. Well, maybe not that clear, maybe it was just that Rush could sense what ze was thinking. Ze was anxious and excited and had been taking every opportunity to be in contact with water. Just thinking about it made Rush shiver. He had developed an aversion towards the liquid element from the time he passed as 'guest' on that Nakai ship.

 

A sudden thought blinded him. _Eggs_. What was that? Rush found himself plastered to the ground, breathing rapidly. No body seemed to notice that he had passed from a sitting position to a lying one. He looked at his side and found a lot of people surrounding Artic. Ze seemed to be having problems breathing too.

 

“Fuck!” Rush muttered. _Of course_ it had been Artic's thought, who else would think about eggs and panic? Unless he had a phobia regarding eggs he doubted that was about himself. Sitting up slowly, he checked on Artic and hir groupies. One of the soldiers had put on the device. Rush could hear the negative Artic was giving to Lt. James, but couldn't hear what was she asking hir.

 

“ _They are not here. It's safe,_ ” that was the clear message that came floating with Artic's screeching way of speaking. It seemed that ze had developed the same habit as him. Ze didn't only think what he was talking, but also spoke it. It was convenient, sometimes, because he could concentrate better while muttering, but he doubted Artic needed to do the same too. Maybe it was a way of not forgetting hir own language.

 

After some more minutes in which Scott talked over the 'incident' with Young though his radio and the military spread the good news—there weren't Nakai on the planet, it was just Artic getting nostalgic—they resumed their task and continued their way to the destroyed city.

 

***

 

Ze couldn't believe how foolish ze had been. Ze had almost made a mistake. Ze had started thinking about what could be found in the city and suddenly began to worry. What if there were eggs? Would the humans destroy them? And so, ze was caught in that worrisome thought. Ze didn't notice that ze was breathing differently, nor that ze had said it out loud, eggs. Ze needed to protect the eggs.

 

Now, ze was in control again. There couldn't be any eggs. Not in a place like that, with buildings standing up with the help of the vegetation. If there had been any eggs, those would've been lost for years. Ze reprimanded hirself. That was just 'wishful thinking', as the humans called it. Ze should stop thinking that way. There were no eggs. Of course, if there were any, ze would do anything to protect them from the humans. Ze was even willing to abandon... No. Ze was not sure ze would abandon _Destiny_ now. Ze would want all. _Destiny_ and the eggs.

 

A sting on the back of hir head made Artic look back. Ze found hirself looking into the deep, dark eyes of Rush.

 

“ _I know_ ,” Rush's eyes seemed to be saying.

 

Ze felt a shiver run down hir body. If Rush told anyone about the eggs, even if those were ghost eggs, it would be a problem. Ze had to protect the eggs.

 

Rush caught up with hir and at ze's thoughts he did something that was usually aimed at stupid statements: he rolled his eyes. Artic relaxed then. Rush didn't care about the eggs. That was good. Ze looked at the front and kept on walking. It didn't matter anyway, the possibility of there being any eggs was nearly zero. There wouldn't be eggs and then Artic would feel depressed.

 

***

 

“Wow!” Volker said.

 

They had entered the first building. More exactly, they have entered the first building they found standing still. It had high ceilings and huge paintings. It would seem like a museum, if it didn't give off the feeling of a federal building. There were, also, lots of broken lights. The only light that peeked inside came from the holes on the ceiling and the torchlights they carried.

 

“As eloquent as always, Dr. Volker,” Rush muttered as he passed by the astrophysicist.

 

When Rush was giving him the back, Volked mimicked him talking, though didn't make a sound, making faces.

 

“Dr. Volker, may I remind you that I have eyes on the back of my neck?” Rush said, kneeling at the foot of a computer and taking out several devices from his backpack.

 

“Wha-!? How-!? You don't have!” Volker protested. “He doesn't!” he assured the chuckling audience, affronted.

 

“I suggest you stop with the guessing of whether I have eyes on the back of my neck or not, and start working,” Rush growled in a low voice, turning around his head to look at the man and the others. “We don't have much time.”

 

“I will go with the exploration team then,” Volker said. He couldn't wait until he was far away from Rush. The man still irked him like no-one could.

 

The exploration team kept on walking through the city. Artic was acting as their guide. Ze was explaining what ze knew based on the remaining of the buildings, telling what was supposed to be inside them. There were a lot of particular houses, places that belonged to families. They didn't enter any of them. Instead, when Artic recognized one of the buildings as gK!ztkRrZT, or hospital, they did enter it. They had orders of looking for whichever technology that could help them, and medicine and anything to do with it was something on the top of the list to look for.

 

The place was creepy as hell, and they had to get into the bowels of the building to find a salvageable computer. Artic set it on and started looking through the records. The screen was damaged and it seemed that some of the data had been corrupted too, but they had special pen-drives. Brody and Eli had designed and programmed them. They were compatible with Nakai's technology as well as _Destiny's_. Artic plugged it and started the download.

 

Ze screeched something and Dunning, who was connected to hir this time, translated.

 

“Artic says it's going to take a while.”

 

“Well then, we can sit here and wait.”

 

Artic screeched something else.

 

“I don't know, man,” Dunning said, patting Artic on the shoulder. “I've been given strict orders. You can't wander around.”

  
“What? What did ze say?” Volker asked.

 

Dunning turned towards Volker and answered, “Ze wants to take a look around. Alone. Ze sais that this is unfolding lost memories.”

 

“Like when you smell something and then you suddenly remember something that happened when you were a toddler?” Lt. James asked.

 

Dunning grimaced, “Yeah, something like that.”

 

“Oh. Well... Ze can't go alone, but if someone goes with him...” she tailed off.

 

“Yeah, I get it,” Dunning said, taking off the com-dev. “Anyone is up for the task? I'm beat and would prefer to sit here and take off my socks.”

 

***

 

Finally alone. Artic was left alone just a few seconds ago. It seemed everyone was gathering there in the gK!ztkRrZT facility. They were speaking about leaving already. The download was almost done and the other group had gathered data as well. They would regroup and as soon as they were together again they would start heading back.

 

Artic didn't know how much time ze would be granted to say hir farewells. Ze had hatched in a space ship, as practically the rest of hir raze. Only a few were still old enough. They talked some times about the Nakai planets, about the times when they preferred the use of nk*t to incubate the eggs. Those were tales of long ago, but Artic had always kept them in his head. Ze would retell hirself those tales again and again so ze would never forget. Ze used to hate them when ze proved unable to keep eggs, they felt like pretty lies. Of course it was safer to use technology to incubate the eggs. Of course they would hatch safer.

 

Ze walked past several rooms and found something he didn't expect. It was a room full of cryo-chambers. As ze stepped in and passed by them ze noticed that all of them had gone to waste. Most were opened, defrosted. Ze felt hir heart clench in hir chest—the human expressions kept imposing in hir mind to the Nakai ones, ze should be careful to not forget hir language.

 

Those cryo-chambers were supposed to keep something precious safe. Ze couldn't help it, despite there being the danger of alarming the humans and guiding them to such a tragic scene, to a place that was supposed to be a happy one. Artic expressed hir sadness screeching. Ze didn't look around frantically, nor did ze inspection the place. Ze knew the chances were nearly zero.

 

But ze stepped on a puddle of water. Cold water. Even in a place like this, the water temperature shouldn't be that low. That alarmed hir. Looking around ze found the place where the water was pouring out. It was a cryo-chamber, half defrosted, half opened. It had survived until then, but it seemed it wouldn't last for long. Artic approached there.

 

It took only a few commands on the door's keyboard—after ze had started the computer in the other room, it seemed that the rest of the building had powered up, with the last of its reserves—to completely open the cryo-chamber. A faint blue glow showered hir. What ze saw inside made hir look over hir shoulders, wondering whether humans would show up now.

 

Hir stomach clenched. There, inside the opened chamber, there were half defrosted Nakai eggs. Of course, ze shouldn't touch them. It was not possible that those would hatch. But... Hadn't it be nearly impossible for eggs to be there too? Was this a second chance?

 

Ze heard a sound at hir back and turned around, startled.

 

Rush was looking at hir.

 

“They are looking for you.”

 

Artic didn't make a sound.

 

“They will find this place soon.”

 

Artic didn't move. Ze was standing between the cryo-chamber and Rush's view.

 

“This is none of my business,” Rush said then, turning around. “Unless they prove to be a threat.” After peeking at the corridor, he looked at Artic again. “I think there was a good reason why _Destiny_ wanted to stop here,” he said, looking at Artic's eyes. “Whether you do... whatever you are thinking or not, it's up to you. I'll be waiting at the entrance.”

 

Then, he walked away.

 

Artic couldn't believe what had just happened.

 

Still trembling with something akin to fear, ze turned towards the eggs. It wouldn't hurt to try... one last time.

 

 

Fin.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Phew, this took me a long while. It was supposed to be finished by last year. (Ba dum tss). Yep, I was supposed to finish it by December, but "shit happened"... Not real shit... Well, sometimes, I'm human, I have needs. xDD Off-line life "got in the way", but it's finally finished and I can post it. *Cries from happiness* Now I can laze around while writing other stuff (stuff that was also supposed to be finished by last year, but meh! I don't really have dates for those stupid fics, hihihi).
> 
> I hope you liked it, and enjoyed your time reading this. :)


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